


Memory

by ChrisTheHumanBoy



Category: Original Work
Genre: Bad Ending, Dementia, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Romance, Hospitalization, M/M, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:48:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26127529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChrisTheHumanBoy/pseuds/ChrisTheHumanBoy
Summary: Josh starts working as an intern at a hospital when he meets Tobias, an early onset dementia patient. After they meet, they slowly grow attached to one another. Things are fine, until Josh learns the hard way about the emotional strain of loving someone with an incurable disease.
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character





	Memory

Josh stood in front of the hospital, pondering if he was going to enter. He really didn’t want to. The only reason he was standing there was because of his parents nagging him to take the internship at their local hospital. He didn’t plan on doing anything else with his life anytime soon and his parents were starting to get annoying, so he caved and said he would do it. But standing in front of the hospital at that moment, Josh wanted to turn back and go back home.

Josh let out a heavy sigh and slowly started to walk his way into the hospital. He despised being there. Not just that hospital, but all of them. He couldn’t stand the feeling they gave him. Hospitals were supposed to give off this feeling of hope and healthiness, but every time Josh entered one, he always felt a deep wave of despair and death crash over him. It was like something was weighing down on his soul. The worst part was that his parents knew he felt this and still pushed him to take the internship. He couldn’t stand them sometimes.

Josh looked around the main lobby, trying to remember what his mom told him to do when he got there. _“Just go to the main desk and tell them you’re here for the internship.”,_ his mom’s voice echoed in the back of his head. He sighed and made his way to the front desk.

“Hello! How can I help you today?”, a lady at the front desk said with a cheerful voice. Josh found it difficult not to roll his eyes at it. “Yeah, I’m here for the internship.”, Josh said, trying to sound somewhat interested. “Oh, yes of course! Follow me, please!”, she said, getting up from the desk and walking towards a hallway. Josh followed her while taking in his surroundings. It seemed to be a slow day. There were only a few people walking around. They were either doctors walking to their next destination, or patients wandering around without much thought as to where they’re going. Josh shook his head and realized he stopped walking. He and the lady from the front desk were standing in front of a small looking side room.

“Your first job for the day is filing. It’s not that hard, just put the correct files in their correct bin, okay?”, she said with a slightly condescending tone. Josh nodded, trying to ignore her voice. He entered the room and let his hand graze over the stack of file in front of him. He sighed once again and got to work.

Josh quickly figured out what goes where, making his work fast and somewhat easy. He got lost in it and his mind began to wander. _“Why am I here? What am I doing?”,_ he asked himself again. He still wondered why he let his parents talk him to this. He was an adult and he could’ve just said no. His thoughts went in circles as he thought of all the things he could have said to get his parents off his back until his thinking was interrupted by a voice.

“You’re a new intern, aren’t you?”, a male voice said from the doorway. Josh quickly turned around to see who spoke to him. Leaning in the doorway was a tall, skinny man with fluffy brown hair. He had his arms crossed and tired smile plastered across his face. “Uh, yeah. Why do you ask?”, Josh said, wanting to get back to his work. “Just asking, is all. What ya doin’?”, the man asked walking into the room and closer to Josh. _“What the hell? Who is this guy?”,_ Josh thought to himself. “Um, just filing. I guess you’re an intern here too, huh?”, Josh asked, hoping to find out a little about this guy. “Hmm? Oh no, I’m not an intern!”, the man said bluntly. Josh was hoping to get more of an answer from the man, but he just continued to stand and stare at Josh with that same tired smile.

Looking into his eyes, Josh could make out more of the man’s facial features. His skin was caramel toned and her had slight bags under his eyes. His half-lidded eyes were like emeralds, but they seemed glassy. Even thought his eyes and face gave off a sense of exhaustion, his voice gave off this joyful and welcoming energy.

“So, um, who are you?”, Josh asked, picking up another file. “The names Benoit. Tobias Benoit.” The man said, putting on a James Bond type voice. Josh was starting to get frustrated with Tobias. He really wasn’t letting on as to who he was or what he was doing here. The best Josh could do was guess. Tobias was wearing normal clothes, a red shirt with a leather jacket on top of it with blue jeans and a pair of burgundy Converses on. Josh thought maybe he was one of the hospital staff that was maybe sent to check on him or something, but he didn’t have a uniform or anything. _“There’s no way he could be a patient. Maybe he's visiting a patient and got lost or something”,_ Josh thought. He was about to give up and just ask Tobias what his deal was until he was interrupted by another voice at the door.

“Tobias Benoit, what are you doing out of your room?!”, a person of indeterminate gender in a nurse’s uniform said from the doorway. Josh was starting to get annoyed. Two people had gotten in between him and getting his work done now. “Aw, you caught me! Thought for sure I could sneak away this time.”, Tobias said, jokingly throwing his arms up in the air. “Yeah, whatever, just get back to your room, dude. I’ll get in trouble again if they find out you snuck out of your room.”, the person at the door said. “Yeah right, Casey, they barely know I exist.”, Tobias said, leaving Josh’s side and walking towards the door. As both Tobias and the person whose name seemed to be Casey argued, they walked out the door, leaving Josh alone.

Josh sighed and went back to his work of filing. Things went quietly like Josh wanted after that. While he was left pondering as to why Tobias was so interested in him, he didn’t let it bother him too much. The rest of his day was uneventful. He was left with nothing to really do other than wait for someone to come and give him instructions, which no one did. Josh had started to think that he had been forgotten about. It wouldn’t surprise him. He was used to being forgotten.

After sitting and waiting for something to happen while messing around on his phone, Josh got tired of waiting and ending up leaving. He doubted anyone would realize he was gone. Shoving his hands in his hoodie pockets, he started the walk home. The town he lived n wasn’t very big and Josh liked walking from place to place. He found it relaxing. Plus, ever since 10th grade, he hated driving.

It was a chilly day and not many people were out and about. Josh never payed attention to other people walking past him anyways. He would always try to get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible, unless he was taking a walk to clear his mind or as an excuse to not be somewhere. If that was the case, then he would always take his sweet time. But since it wasn’t, he focused on getting home as soon as possible.

After a 15-minute walk, he arrived at home. His parents must have been out since the house was overcome with an intense silence. This type of silence was rare for Josh, so he did his best to enjoy it. He walked up to his room and fell back onto his bed. While looking up at the ceiling, he reached his right hand over to his nightstand, where he kept his Nintendo Switch. He was hoping to play some Animal Crossing, but once he looked at the empty switch’s screen, he felt a wave of exhaustion rush over him suddenly. It was something he was all too familiar with. Sometimes he’d be feeling fine for the better part of the day, when suddenly he’d have an ache in his chest that made him not want to do anything other than lie in bed and think. So that’s just what he did.

Josh never really liked it when his brain and body would give in to his thinking. For one, he found it extremely unproductive. He would never get anything done whenever he shut down like this, but he couldn’t help it. Secondly, he hated the things his brain would think up. It would imagine the darkest things sometimes. The most horrible things would happen to Josh whenever he was in his head and there was nothing he could really do about it. The thoughts would come nonstop, one after the other. Some days the only way they would stop is if he fell asleep or if someone were to come and snap him out of it.

As Josh lay in his bed, he hoped that the thoughts wouldn’t be too bad this time. He hoped that maybe they just be slightly melancholy and just focus on how he’ll have to go back to the hospital tomorrow. It was never as easy as just hoping for not that bad thoughts, but he tried to anyway. As the ache in his chest began to grow, his brain started to run.


End file.
